Organic polymeric materials such as plastics and resins are subject to thermal, oxidative and/or photodegradation. A great variety of stabilizers are known in the art for stabilizing a diversity of substrates. Their effectiveness varies depending upon the causes of degradation and the substrate to be stabilized. In general, it is difficult to predict which stabilizers will be most effective and most economical for any one area of stabilization. For example, stabilizer effectiveness in reducing volatility may depend upon preventing bond scission in the substrate molecule. Limiting embrittlement and retaining elasticity in a polymer or rubber may require prevention of excessive crosslinking and/or chain scission. Prevention of discoloration may require inhibiting reactions which yield new chromophores or color bodies in the substrate or stabilizer. Problems of process stability and incompatibility must also be considered.
Saturated tertiary amine N-oxides are known as non-ionic surfactants. The oxidation and rearrangement of selected N-alkenyl(allyl) tertiary amine N-oxides to the corresponding O-alkenyl(allyl) hydroxylamines are taught by A. C. Cope et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 71, 3423 (1949); R. F. Kleinschmidt and A. C. Cope, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 66, 1929 (1944); S. Inoue et al., Chem. Letters, 1986, 2035; and Y. Inouye et al., J. Org. Chem. 41, 300 (1976). The use of N-alkenyl-N-oxides of tertiary amines as stabilizers for organic substrates is not taught in the prior art.